Susan Senator
All happy families are not alike...
All happy families are not alike...
Cake Ideas, Please?
Most of my readers know that my family is all about the cake for celebrating. We make our own most of the time, but for large gatherings we like to special order and design a unique one from Party Favors in Brookline, MA. If you can draw it, they can bake it. Three dimensional, I’m talking.
Nat’s graduation party is going to be big: 50+ people I estimate, so I am going with the Party Favors cake. Nat loves those, because they use real butter-and-sugar frosting to shape things– not fondant, that strange rubbery crap that they use on all the cake tv shows which to my mind is totally cheating. Well, sometimes they use fondant but not for my cakes. Sure, fondant’s edible, but it is just too polished, too Martha. Maybe for a wedding cake. But not for my Natty.
I need ideas for the cake shape. First and foremost, the cake shape has to be something recognizable to Nat, and meaningful to him. Nothing symbolic. So I am going to list what Nat likes and what is momentous in his life, and I am asking you to chime in with ideas because I have not hit it right yet.
1) Disney videos
2) Swimming
3) Beach
4) Basketball
5) Social group
6) Food
7) Rides
What is momentous currently:
1) Graduation
2) Moving out of The House and back home for a bit
3) New apartment and group home of two other guys
4) Day Program
5) Graduation from school
6) Birthday
D’oh! These seem so not-there in terms of a cake idea…
3 comments
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I can’t offer you a suggestion,but I’m sure the bakery you are using will present something fantastic, as you have shown their work in the past on your blog and they can do some amazing stuff. I have to put my two cents in here about the fondant and speaking for myself I agree with you wholeheartedly. I for one find the taste of it revolting, it really is nasty stuff, plus you eat what someone else has has in their hands and worked with for 30 minutes. I find myself screaming back at the TV, especially Cake Boss when they are bragging on their latest creation, saying “okay smart guy, now do it again but with buttercream.” Then, and only then, you will prove your true baking talents.
When I was planning my wedding (17 years ago) fondant was all the rage but I told my baker there would be nada, not one drop of fondant on my cake, it would be a three tier covered in delicious buttercream and decorated with same. He didn’t like it but he did it anyway and the cake looked like a wedding cake would look back in the 50’s. It was great, I kept the remainder in my freezer until Hurricane George came in 1998 and we were without power for almost a week and everything in the freezer had to be tossed, including the last of my yummy wedding cake.
I love the sentiment your family attaches to cakes and celebrations. We do the same. My son’s current obsession with cars and rock and roll has made for some fun cakes over the last couple of years… But, you’re right. This one is a bit tricky to figure out. I do love the idea of friends (social group, new roommates…) I may have watched too many episodes of Cake Boss, but what about a cake that somehow shows Nat growing up. As a baby in your arms, as a young boy on a bike, as a grown man with his arm around a pal. I see it almost like those evolutionary charts played out on the sides (so the images are upright) of a tall layer cake. Just a thought… You could then add in snippets of things he loves: a ride, a swimming pool, a disney character, a hamburger as additional decorations between each figure.
The idea here is you are celebrating his steps into adulthood and independence. Just a thought. Good luck, whatever you decide!
how about a progression. baby, toddler, teen, man